tonight on "nightline" -- whiteout. a deadly snowstorm blasts half the nation, wreaking havoc on the roads. destroying the roof of the metrodome. and bringing dangerous cold. so what's coming next for your state? college cheat. he's written thousands of academic papers for students who pay steep fees to take credit for his work, and he is far from alone. we investigate the vast and lucrative world of cheating on campus. and man of peace. breaking news tonight as america's storied senior diplomat, richard holbrooke, dies after heart surgery.

good evening, everyone, i'm bill weir. it was the sort of record breaking storm that felt like punishment. crippling transportation infradrawer, burying cars, stranding people, and destroying one very well-known stadium this weekend. on the way to shattering 100-year-old marks for snowfall. at least 14 people lost their lives in crashes. or from exposure. to tell us where the worst is headed next, here's chris bury. >> reporter: in northern indiana, a powerful combination, bitter cold, blustery winds and dangerous drifting snow, all making travel a nightmare. the ferocious blizzard led to countless accidents like this. and it left at least 70 cars and trucks stranded on and along highways. we met a tow truck driver who had been pulling cars and trucks

out of trouble for 17 straight hours. >> i ran into one lady down there. she was in tears. she could not function in the car. it's just really, really disorientating down there. >> reporter: we're driving along u.s. 30 in northern indiana. a wind is blowing straight across the highway. even though the plows have been out today, so much snow is coming and the winds are moving so quickly that the roads remain fairly treacherous. along the side of the road, we found megan reed, who had come back to the car she abandoned in the storm last night. >> reporter: how did you get in the ditch? >> i couldn't see the road. i couldn't tell if it was grass or the road. >> reporter: shawn cunningham, who shot these pictures on his phone, had left fort wayne heading for chicago when he and his family got stranded. spending a scary night in their car before they were dug out today. >> we were very lucky. we ended up having enough gas to make it through the night so the car was on most of the night and, therefore, we and the kids

were warm. >> reporter: the trip that normally takes them less than four hours had become a 24 hour ordeal. >> visibility was very limited at times limited to 10 or 15 feet. the winds were extreme. probably felt like they were 40 or 50 miles an hour. and there was just a ton of blowing snow. so it was very, very difficult to see anything. >> reporter: at least three indiana counties declared emergencies. some roads were so bad, firefighters blocked exits. >> right now, it's just a safety issue. need to open the roads and get people home. >> reporter: the storm began its march across the midwest friday evening. before it was over, two feet had fallen on parts of wisconsin and minnesota. in chicago alone, more than 1,000 flights were canceled at o'hare and midway airports. >> my flight from chicago to cleveland has gotten canceled. and it's rebooked for tuesday afternoon. >> reporter: and even as far south as asheville, north

carolina, kids were having snowball fights. in shiloh, illinois, along this stretch of road, it was one truck, one suv, one car after another, plowing off the roadway. and, as with every big storm lately, those ubiquitous youtube videos chronicling everything from snow rafting, snow drifting, and even snow hoops. but the surest sign that this storm meant business -- that remarkable video from inside the metrodome in minneapolis. the inflatable roof collapsing under the weight of the 4 million pounds of snow. >> it's kind of sad, you know. we're season ticket holders. >> reporter: eager ticket holders like this bus load from sioux falls, south dakota, found themselves with no game to go to. instead, the minnesota vikings and new york giants played tonight in detroit. >> we're stuck here for however

long. >> yep. >> the dome collapsed. our bus driver won't take us to detroit. >> reporter: today, workers continued to shovel snow off the roof and make repairs. hopefully in time for next week's game. >> we'll cut new fabric and put it up. >> i'm excavating. >> reporter: as minnesota and the midwest dig out, the severe weather keeps coming. extreme cold that's plunging temperatures down into the single digits. add gusting winds and the chill factor is dipping far below zero. >> the heavy snow in our storm impacted only much of the plains in the midwest. the cold behind this storm is impacting about half the country. >> reporter: in fact, the cold could reach from montana to maine. north dakota to as far south as central florida. today, green beans were being harvested before they could freeze. and, tonight, orange growers are struggling to keep their crops from being destroyed in the bitter cold.

>> it's got to stay warm. this is the only thing we can do. >> the air mass behind this storm system is brutally cold. certainly it's the coldest in quite some time. and for many, it may be the coldest of the season. >> reporter: tonight, with 14 dead in the wake of this storm, much of the country is bracing for another bitter dose. and we're still a full week away from the official start of winter. i'm chris bury for "nightline," near valpariso, indiana. >> our thanks to chris. when we come back, college campuses. the ghost writer paid thousands to do student's work. ooh, a brainteaser. how can expedia now save me even more on my hotel? well, hotels know they can't fill every room every day. like this one. and this one.

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to say that everyone is doing it isn't far off, unfortunately. by some estimates, nearly 70% of college students admit to cheating. in response, some schools have adopted high-tech adoption efforts, including planning rift sniffing software and surveillance cameras in testing halls. teachers say some cheating is nearly impossible to detect. tonight, we talk with a man who made a good living helping students put their name on his work. here's david muir. >> reporter: at the center of the firestorm about cheating on campuses, a shadow industry. writers paid by students to do their work for them. lucrative and secretive until

now. >> there are companies out there that do this and it's perfectly legal. >> it is, it is, i pay taxes. >> reporter: we have agreed to call him ed and disguise his voice. he has earned thousands of dollars writing for students. lawyers? >> nurses. all kinds of law -- >> reporter: psychologists? >> absolutely. not too far back, i completed a doctorate in psychology. >> reporter: it was his own article that has ignited a fierce debate about cheating in the 21st century, students outsourcing their work. >> hey there, what's up? do you really want to spend countless days and nights stuck working on your homework? yeah, neither did i. luckily for you though, we have the solution to your problems. >> reporter: and ed says it often starts the moment a student sets eyes on the college of their choice, with that entrance letter. you write, i do not mean to be insensitive but i can't tell you how many times i've been paid to write about somebody helping a loved one battle cancer.

i've written essays that could be adapted into meryl streep movies. to get people into the universities of their choice? >> yes. >> reporter: when you talk about cancer, is it a made-up story? >> i would like to think not. >> reporter: there's no moral question that creeps in? >> listen, we all know cheating is wrong and i won't make excuses for it but at the same time, i did this to make a living. >> reporter: what's the most you've been paid to write a paper? >> over the course of four days, 175-page accounting paper, so that paid me $2,000. >> reporter: this year, making more than $60,000. you say you've written towards a ph.d. in sociology? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: business administration, pharmacology, maritime security? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: did you ever go to a public library to do research? >> absolutely not. i google everything. everything is googleable. you know, if i can say this on camera, i'm something of a bull crap artist. >> reporter: what about people who call you worse things for what you've done? >> all the moral outrage will not stop it.

>> reporter: it's not hard to find students buying these papers. gene is a college sophomore. you've purchased papers? >> yes, multiple papers online. i know at least ten people that do it. >> reporter: ten? >> at least, at least ten. >> reporter: he paid for the papers using the allowance he got from his mother. what's the most you've paid for a paper? >> cost me $175. for the paper. >> reporter: and what did you get? >> i actually got a b-plus. >> reporter: i'm curious, where are the parents in all this? >> oftentimes, right alongside the student. just as they pay tuition, they're paying for the student's paper. >> reporter: and he says if the paper doesn't get a good grade, he often hears from a parent. by some estimates, nearly 70% of college students say they've cheated. just this fall at the university of central florida, the biggest cheating scandal in the school's history. 200 students got the answers to a midmateriterm before they too. ironically at a school with a trained eye on cheaters. now their own control room.

every student's move captured on camera. watch as our producer sits down and pulls out what could be a cheat sheet. it would never get past the cameras. not even a text message i send her while she's in the room. but we wondered, can all of the policing in the world catch those custom ordered papers? we turned to the honors program at hofstra university asking five professors with experienced eyes if we ordered a paper for one of their exams, could they tell the difference? we pay extra for a rush job, $340, for a seven page paper. then we turn it in with actually papers written by students at hofstra. was there one paper if you had to guess, that would be the one that was paid for? >> paper c. >> i would have said paper c. >> c. >> d. >> a. >> reporter: just one professor got it write. and when we told the professors just how much money that ghost writer ed is set to make this year -- >> he's making more than many college faculty who are teaching the things about which he is

writing. >> reporter: more money than many professors. and as long as there are writers willing to do the work, students will continue to send desperate e-mails like this one. >> where you are, can you get my messages? please, i pay a lot and don't have a to fail. i straighted to get very worried. >> reporter: ed is coming forward now after deciding to stop writing for others. but where this industry will continue long without him. do you wish you had not done it at all? >> absolutely not. i don't know if anybody in the world would trade the education i've had. >> reporter: as for that student, gene, he says with finals, this time he's doing the work. what do you hope to be some day? >> ooh, well, after this, hopefully i'm going to be going to law school, be a lawyer. >> reporter: will you have earned it? >> by then, yeah, by then, yes, i believe i will. >> reporter: this is david muir for "nightline" in new york. >> our thanks to david muir. and coming up next, the inside story of why the eldest son of ponzi seemer bernard madoff took his own life this weekend.

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two years ago, bernard madoff told his sons that the family firm, the source of their immense fortune, was built on lies. that drama that unfolded since, the prisonment, the lawsuits, took a grim turn when the eldest son was found dead. brian ross literally wrote the pook on this case and joins us now with the latest. >> reporter: even in death, mark madoff will continue to be the target of a series of lawsuits alleging he and his children receive tens of millions of dollars in stolen money and though have to return it to the investors. mark had denied any knowledge of his father's sins but in an e-mail to his lawyer, hours before he hanged himself, he wrote, no one wants to hear the truth. mark mad yf's true passion was fishing, not wall street. so much so he and his brother

andy invested in a company that makes fishing reels and produced this video. and friends today said mark only reluctantly went to work in the family business and went down the road that would lead to tragedy. >> he loved life and he thought about everybody before he thought about himself. >> reporter: eleanor was bernie madoff's secretary for 25 years. and watched mark and his brother grow up. >> i always knew that mark wore his heart on his sleeve and he wanted to be liked. that was just his personality. >> reporter: i certainly liked him. people who were around him, couldn't help it, he was so jubilant and he was so -- he was so sweet. >> reporter: 46-year-old mark madoff took his life saturday. on the second anniversary of his father's arrest. a date on which his life of luxury and privilege became one of torment and shame. his father-in-law discovered the body hanging from a pipe on a dog leash.

his 2-year-old son nick asleep in another room of the new york apartment. mark had sent an e-mail to his wife, stephanie, saying, i love you, send someone to take care of nick. how do you think he could have gotten to the point where he would hang himself with his 2-year-old son in a nearby room? >> i don't know. i don't want to go there. it's hard for me to go there, to think that, you know, but it had to have been unrelenting. for him to go there and to feel that he had nowhere out. >> reporter: he loved his -- >> oh -- >> reporter: madoff's former secretary says she is convinced neither mark nor his brother was aware of the ponzi scheme being run by their father for so many years. >> he had to live for the last two years under the scrutiny and the innuendos and people alluding to the fact that he

should have known. well, you know what, he didn't. and i would bet my life on it. >> reporter: but as bernie madoff's son, he led an extravagant lifestyle, paid for with tens of millions of dollars. a bankruptcy trustee says was stolen from madoff's investors. in a lawsuit, the trustee alleges if the family members had been doing their jobs, honestly and faithfully, the madoff ponzi scheme might never have succeeded or continued for so long. >> one of the theories is that some of these people were in control or were -- were absolutely in a position to understand what was going on. others simply benefited on a rather extravagant basis. >> we all would be living that -- if we were born into it and mark just assumed -- like you would or i would, that if your father was an extremely wealthy man, and he owned this brokerage firm, and you worked there, and he gave you all his

money, you wouldn't think twice about it. >> reporter: for the last two years, the once picture perfect madoffs were a dysfunctional family. friends say mark was so angry about his father's crimes that he cut off all communication with him and also refused to speak with his mother ruth whom he called an enabler. his suicide may have been a final message. >> i think bernie got the message. >> reporter: did he deserve to get that message? >> well, mark didn't deserve to die but bernie deserves to be where he is. i'm very angry. at bernie that he did. he made a choice. and it came to this. >> reporter: what about ruth? >> i feel sorry for ruth right now. i'm sure she's so devastated because mark was just a loving child. >> reporter: ruth seemed to have had a choice, support your sons, support your husband. >> she made the wrong choice.

and i'm sure she's paying for it. >> reporter: on a mark madoff facebook page, his friends remembered him as a sensitive caring person who did not deserve what happened to him. he was one of the best people i ever knew. wrote a high school friend. so sad wrote a former madoff employee. sleep tight, mark. ruth madoff was reported to be at her home in boca raton, florida, today, distraught. bernard madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence. his lawyer says he will not seek to attend his son's funeral out of respect for the privacy of his family. it's not likely he will be welcome in any case. bill. >> brian ross, thanks. here's what's on tap with jimmy kimmel. >> thanks, bill. tonight, rachael ray. from "tron legacy," garrett hedlund. music from darker my love. and these guys. hthththththt

finally tonight, the country has lost one of its most steadfast public servants, richard holbrooke. the negotiator of the dayton peace accords and president obama's special envoy to pakistan and afghanistan, died of heart failure today at age 69. with a lack ook at his legacy, here's "this week's" christiane amanpour. >> reporter: the ranks of the great diplomats when he brokered the dayton peace accords that ended bitter ethnic war in bosnia. holbrooke's death comes just days before the obama administration rolls out its review of the war in afghanistan. a war that holbrooke was actively working to turn around. in part, through a so-called civilian surge, using not just american troops but american expertise to rebuild the country. >> we're not aband doning afghanistan, a